Things Always Have a Way of Changing
by Scooby78
Summary: EliGrace - Takes place right after the end of season one. Eli and Grace aren’t on speaking terms, because she was the one that told him about Cassidy’s cheating. It’s the middle of summer, and things are about to change.


Hey everyone! I'm back, with a new story, and a new screen name. I will soon be reloading my previous stories and finishing them. I've been on a O&A kick again, and have been itching to write some Eli and Grace. This is a good thing, since I've been really blocked lately. I hope you enjoy the story and let me know what you think. Also, I've created a new site and will be moving the content of Forbidden Love over to it sometime this weekend. The link is in my profile, cause for some reason it doesn't want to show up here.   
  
**Title:** Things Always Have a Way of Changing   
**Author:** Scooby1978 aka Scooby78 aka Mandie   
**Rating:** PG-13   
**Category:** Eli/Grace   
**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything!   
**Summary:** Takes place right after the end of season one. Eli and Grace aren't on speaking terms, because she was the one that told him about Cassidy's cheating. It's the middle of summer, and things are about to change.  
  
**Chapter 1**  
  
Grace watched as her friend Julie looked through the clothing racks of the store they had just entered. They had been shopping all day, and Grace had hated every single clothing store they had entered. Not because she didn't like clothes, on the contrary, she loved clothes. She just hated summer clothing. Everything during the summer months was about showing off your stomach, your legs or your breasts... three areas of Grace's body that she didn't feel entirely comfortable showing off.  
  
Not that Grace thought that she had a bad body, because she knew she didn't, she just knew that she didn't have the body for that type of clothing. Therefore, Grace stuck with the pairs of shorts, that didn't ride up her butt, and shirts that covered her midriff. Clothing that most would consider boring, or basic, nothing that would ever draw attention from the opposite sex. So to watch her friend, that couldn't look fat or horrible in anything, complain that she looked awful with every outfit she tried on was exhausting.  
  
"Hey Julie, I'm going to run next door to the music store. Is that okay?" Grace asked, hoping her friend wouldn't have an issue with it.  
  
"Yeah, that's not a problem. I see a few more things that I want to try on. So I'll meet you in there in say," she looked down at her watch, "twenty minutes."  
  
"Okay, see you in there." Grace said, and then sighed in relief.  
  
Sometimes Julie could be fickle, and wouldn't want to be left alone, for the simple fact that she hated being by herself. Grace was thanking God today wasn't one of those days. Grace walked into the music store and started gazing through the new releases, picking up a CD every once in a while to read the track listings.  
  
After selecting two CD's from the new releases to purchase, she made her way towards the back of the store to check out the newest posters. She started flipping through the rack, when she came across a new poster of Hayden Christensen. She stared at the picture for few minutes, debating in her head whether to buy it or not. Normally she wasn't the type of girl to have posters hanging all over her room. "But he looks so freaking adorable." She said to herself.  
  
She was so caught up in thought that she hadn't heard the person that was starting to look through the rack of posters next to her approach. She glanced to her left, "Shit!"  
  
Right smacked dabbed next to her was Coop, Eli's best friend. Which meant most likely Eli wasn't too far behind. She hadn't seen Eli much since that horrendous dinner they had a few weeks prior, a dinner that their parents had arranged for everyone to get to know each other. Grace snorted, at the memory.  
  
The night had been so horrible, that she tried her hardest to block out the memory. Eli had ignored her, all night long, well not entirely, he said hello, and he said goodbye, but nothing else. Much to the surprise of their parent's, since Rick and Lily were under the impression that the two had become friends. Which in a sense was true, they had become friends, or at least more than acquaintances.  
  
Grace knew what had changed things, earlier that day she had informed Eli that Cassidy had been cheating on him. Eli hadn't really believed her, and she left before he could argue with her any longer. She ran towards Tiffany, who had been sent to pick her up, and was thankful for the first time to see her fathers' girlfriend.  
  
From what Grace could gather from Julie, whose friends with someone in Cassidy's group, was that Eli ended up driving over to Cassidy's house later that day, and had caught her with some other boy, and he called her on it after the other boy had left. She had tried to deny it, claiming that Grace and Jennifer were making up lies, because Jennifer wanted Eli back, that the boy Eli had seen her with only minutes before was an old friend. Eli called her on her lies, stating that friends did not kiss the way they were kissing, and dumped her right there on the spot.  
  
Grace actually just found out that they had broken up, and got that whole story from Julie only moments before the Sammler clan had arrived. So Grace knew, that she was going to be considered public enemy number one, it wasn't right, nor was it fair, but she understood it.  
  
However, while she understood the anger at the time, she couldn't quite get why he couldn't get over it already. Why she was still the enemy? They had seen each other a few times since that night, but every time they had, he didn't say a single word. He acted like he didn't know her, as if she was a stranger, and that hurt more than Grace was willing to admit.  
  
She tried to ease away from the poster rack unnoticed when she had heard his voice call out to Coop and could tell he was on his way over. Of course, almost every stealth like attempt comes with a loud obnoxious crash of something, this time being a rack of celebrity calendars. Right as she moved to the right, her foot was caught up in the rug and she tripped into the display, sending the rack and the calendars flying.  
  
Instantly she felt like the biggest idiot in the world, she had caught the attention of every customer in the store, as well as Eli and Coop's. Her cheeks turned red as the embarrassment factor sunk in. She then attempted to pick up the merchandise lying on the floor, without even a glance Eli's way.  
  
"Way to go Grace..." Julie said, clapping her hands as she approached her friend. When she had reached Grace she bent down to help her pick up the rest of the display.  
  
"Could my life get any worse?" Grace mumbled to herself.  
  
"Well if it's any consolation," Julie began, over hearing her friends comment to herself. "Eli looked concerned for your well being for like a second, which is a second longer than he has in weeks."  
  
"Was it a whole second?" Grace asked, and then laughed. Realizing how stupid that question was. "I can't believe in my attempt to get away from Eli unnoticed, I made myself even more noticeable. Why does my life always go this way?"  
  
"Luck." Julie joked.  
  
"Not funny, Jules."  
  
"I thought it was." She grinned, and then laughed once more before grabbing the last of the calendars. "Why don't you just march right up to him, and say 'Eli what the hell is your problem? Just because I was the bearer of bad news, doesn't mean you get to treat me like shit. One day we might be stepsiblings, and we'll have to get along, so let's just start now. Friends?'"  
  
Grace laughed. "Yeah, like I'm going to do that." She said looking down at her friend, who was straightening the last of the mess.  
  
"Why not, sounds like a good idea to me." She grinned again as she stood up, and met Grace's 'are you kidding me' face.  
  
"Because the only reason you want me to do that, is because, well I'm not sure why, but I'm not going to do it."  
  
"Well you need to do something, because you can't spend your life trying to avoid Eli Sammler. Especially since, what I said, about the stepsiblings thing, it could come true."  
  
"That won't happen," Grace said, then paused giving it some thought. "Do you really thing they could get married?"  
  
"The way that your mom and Rick stare at each other, I'm surprised there hasn't been a wedding already. They really do love each other."  
  
"Yeah, but marriage, I mean... she's barely divorced. Would she really marry the first guy she dated after my dad?"  
  
"She could, but I don't really know. I'm just saying that there's the possibility, and it would be much easier on your mom, and Rick if you and his son got along."  
  
"Well it's not my fault, he's the one that stopped speaking to me."  
  
"Yeah, but you're the one letting it continue." Julie said before walking away from Grace to put back the stuff that had fallen onto the floor.  
  
Eli couldn't exit the music store fast enough. Once he was sure Grace hadn't hurt herself, he dragged Coop out of the store much to his friends' annoyance.  
  
"What the fuck E. I was looking at something, why the hell did you drag me out here." Coop asked a little pissed off.  
  
"I just needed to get out of there, Carmen Electra can wait." He said, not willing to offer any other information.  
  
"Why? Because Grace Manning was in there?" Coop couldn't believe his friend. "Why the hell are you so mad at her anyway? Cassidy was two timing bitch, and Grace did the right thing by telling you. So just get over whatever resentment you have towards her for telling you."  
  
"I'm not mad at Grace for telling me about Cassidy, I'm mad at the fact that she had to tell me. That the fact that my girlfriend was cheating on me and everyone else knew, and I was clueless..."  
  
Coop cut him off, "Not everyone knew. I had no idea until you told me."  
  
"Yeah, but that's because your in your own little world Coop." Eli joked. "I just feel like the biggest idiot, and every time I see Grace I'm reminded of that fact."  
  
"You're not a idiot man, it happens to the best of us. And honestly, the only people that knew what was going on were Cassidy's friends."  
  
"Then how did Grace find out? It's not like she hangs with Cassidy's group."  
  
"I don't know, why don't you just ask her?"  
  
"Yeah, like I would do a thing like that."  
  
"Well bottom line is, you're in each other's lives now, because of your parents, and you can't go around ignoring each other."  
  
Eli let what Coop had just sink in, it probably would make him feel better to talk to Grace. To find out if everyone really knew he had been played, or if it was just a random few. Because he hated feeling as if he was the biggest loser by allowing his girlfriend to wonder into another mans arms.  
  
"Maybe I should." Eli said, following Coop down the walkway of the mall.  
  
Coop turned around, and noticed Grace and her friend walking out of the music store. "Well there's you chance man."  
  
"Now?"  
  
"What better time. You're both in the same place at the same time, just go do it, get it over with, you'll feel much better about the whole thing. Trust me."  
  
Eli glance over at Grace, who had been looking his way but as soon as they caught each other's eyes she looked away, and grabbed Julie and began walking the other way.  
  
"Just go talk to him already."  
  
"No. Even if I am the one letting it continue, he caused it. If he wants a truce he..." Grace stopped mid sentence when she heard her name being called. She turned around quickly, knowing exactly whom the voice belonged to.  
  
Julie moved into her friend to whisper something into her ear right before Eli and Coop had reached them. "Just let it go."  
  
Grace stared at her friend, and pleading with her silently. Begging her to pull her away, to do something, she wasn't ready for this; she wasn't ready to talk to him.  
  
"Just let it go." She said again, right as the boys approached.  
  
"Hey Grace." Eli said, shifting uncomfortably since Grace barely looked at him as he walked over towards her.  
  
"Eli." She said, and then the group fell silent, but only for a moment.  
  
Coop turned towards Julie, and wrapped his arm around her. "How do you feel about Carmen Electra?" He said escorting her into the music store, to leave Grace and Eli alone.  
  
"Don't really have much of an opinion." Grace and Eli heard Julie reply, each word got softer as they got further away.  
  
"Grace I..."  
  
"What Eli?" Grace snapped.  
  
"I um, well I..."  
  
"Today Eli, I have places to be." She snapped. Why was she so angry? She didn't get it, yeah she knew she was hurt by him ignoring her, but she never realized she was this upset over it.  
  
"Nothing, forget it." He said then turned around, and began walking the other way.  
  
"Wait, Eli... Come back." She watched Eli stop, but he didn't turn around, or make any movement to go back towards her. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you. What did you want to say?"  
  
"I just wanted to know how you found out about Cassidy and that other guy?" He fsaid as her turned back towards her.  
  
"That's why you wanted to talk to me?" Grace said in disbelief, she originally thought he might have wanted to apologize for ignoring her all these weeks, or something to that affect.  
  
"Yeah pretty much."  
  
"So you ignore me for weeks, treat me like crap in my own home, and the first thing out of your mouth is about your cheating girlfriend. You're unbelievable Eli."  
  
"What did you expect me to say?" Eli asked.  
  
"I don't know, maybe, I'm sorry for taking out the fact that my girlfriend cheated on me on you."  
  
"I'm not taking it out on you."  
  
"You haven't acknowledge my presence for weeks Eli. How is that not taking it out on me, your pissed at me because I'm the one that told you about Cassidy."  
  
"I'm not pissed at you Grace."  
  
"Could have fooled me."  
  
"I didn't mean to give you that impression. Just every time I saw you, it reminded me of the fact that my girlfriend was cheating on me, and that everyone but me knew about it, so I did my best to get away from any reminder that I was a loser."  
  
"No one knew Eli, Jennifer is the one that told me, and she only knew because she used to be friends with Cassidy, and knew how she is. As I told you before, I didn't believe it at first, until Cassidy's friends threatened me. No one would have let you be played like that if they had any inkling. Every single girl in that school that liked you in anyway, would have told you in a heartbeat just so they could have their shot with Eli Sammler."  
  
"So no one knew?"  
  
"No, no one knew."  
  
"Good."  
  
"Though I find it kind of funny, that your all worried about people thinking you got played when you didn't give a damn about Jennifer's feelings or reputation when you did it to her."  
  
"I..."  
  
"Save it, there's nothing you can say to defend yourself. I just don't get why men have to cheat. It makes no sense to me. What is it about blond little bimbos half their age that make guys forget that person that they are supposed to love?"  
  
Eli could sense that this little rampage wasn't about him any longer. "We're only human, everyone make mistakes Grace."  
  
"Yeah, I know."  
  
"So I take it you still haven't forgiven your Dad entirely."  
  
"How'd you know I was talking about my dad?" Grace asked surprised.  
  
"Well I'm assuming that the blond bimbo that is half someone's age was the woman that picked you up from school that day and every other day your dad picks you up, so..."  
  
"You know when my Dad picks me up?"  
  
"Well I guess you could say I'm observant." Eli answered with a smirk.  
  
"I guess so." She laughed, though she had to wonder why Eli was so observant when it came to her. Just as that thought entered her mind, butterflies started swarming a little bit in her stomach, just at the mere thought that Eli might think of her as more then a friend.  
  
"Well I guess I need to go grab Coop, we were supposed to be back at my house a little while ago. So I'll see you around."  
  
"Yeah..."  
  
Eli started walking away, and then turned around. "And Grace I am sorry for making you think I was mad at you, cause trust me I could never be mad you."  
  
Grace watched him walk away and then spoke aloud, to herself. "What the hell did that mean?"  
  
TBC????  
  
So should I continue or let it die? It's up to you guys.


End file.
